Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams [Paperback]

Nick Tosches (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 13, 1999

From dealing blackjack in the small-time gangster  town of Steubenville, Ohio, to carousing with the  famous "Rat Pack" in a Hollywood he  called home, Dean Martin lived in a grandstand,  guttering life of booze, broads, and big money. He  rubbed shoulders with the mob, the Kennedys, and  Hollywood's biggest stars. He was one of America's  favorite entertainers. But no one really knew him.  Now Nick Tosches reveals the man behind the  image--the dark side of the American dream. It's a  wild, illuminating, sometimes shocking tale of sex,  ambition, heartaches--and a life lived hard, fast,  and without  apologies.


From the Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Only a handful of showbiz biographers can lay claim to posessing the literary acumen of writers like Michael Holroyd and Peter Ackroyd. Nick Tosches is one of these writers, and his unauthorized biography of Dean Martin stands as a testament to his genius. Several inimitable sequences in which Tosches adopts his subject's perspective (most of which are regrettably unsuitable for quotation here) make the book a real standout.

Dino is a fascinating portrait of a man who had it all--money, fame, women--and didn't give a damn about any of it and suggests that, even as he wallowed in the excesses of Hollywood and the Rat Pack, Martin stayed critically aloof from that world, albeit often in a booze-and-pill-addled haze. He got into showbiz precisely because it required so little effort of him: "I can't stand an actor or actress who tells me acting is hard work," he once said. "It's easy work. Anyone who says it is hard never had to stand on his feet all day dealing blackjack." Nobody could impress Martin. While Frank Sinatra would do anything just to hang out with reputed Mafioso, the Mob would have to make special trips to ask Martin in person to play a show at one of their casinos.

Tosches' portrait, written only a few years before Martin's death in 1996, depicts its subject as nothing so much as a Zen master without the spiritual anchor; after sampling everything that life had to offer and finding it lacking, Martin spent the last years of his life waiting to die in virtual seclusion. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Tosches, best known for his biography of Jerry Lee Lewis ( Hellfire , LJ 1/15/82), worked in a similar vein to produce this biography of Dean Martin. Tosches's extensive research is obvious, and his book has been aided immeasurably by extensive interviews with Martin's longtime wife, Jeanne, and with his former partner, Jerry Lewis. Martin himself was not interviewed. It's all here: Martin's career in nightclubs, movies, and television as well as his friendships with various mafiosi. The book stays afloat despite the weightiness of too many Italian and Yiddish words, too many gratuitous expletives, and just plain too many words bearing too much metaphorical weight for the subject.
- John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Delta; 1st ed thus edition (April 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038533429X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385334297
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( M ) > Martin, Dean

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Look at a Show-Biz Enigma May 15, 2000

By Scott T. Rivers VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

In the world of show business, Dean Martin remains a fascinating enigma. Nick Tosches certainly knew this when writing "Dino," a perceptive and revealing 1992 biography that depicts the singer-actor as a man who gave a damn about very little - letting the riches fall where they may. It's all here: the Martin and Lewis partnership, the Rat Pack, the Mafia, the Kennedys, etc. However, "Dino" is more than a traditional show-biz biography. Tosches writes with the wisdom of a scholar and a poet. The author documents Martin's rise to stardom and inevitable breakup with Jerry Lewis, his remarkable solo success in the 1960s, and his emotional reclusiveness - which became more pronounced after his son was killed in a 1987 jet crash. Though published three years before Martin's death at age 78, Tosches concludes his book with the telling image of Dino in retirement as he watches old Westerns on television. Even in his final years, Martin did exactly what he wanted with no apologies or regrets.

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dean Martin, alone but not lonely. October 14, 2004

By Dennis Brislen

Format:Paperback

He was by all accounts a kind, gracious and modest man. Possessed of a free flowing natural off-the-wall sense of humor. These were the characteristics that drew people to him and at the same time kept them away, disappointed when they couldn't "reach" him.

He learned at an early age the card sharks tricks. Play it close to the vest and don't telegraph anything. These early lessons served him well all his life, perhaps too well.

Let it be said that no one has been able to crack the enigma that was Dean Martin. Not his wife of 20 years Jeanne, not the two siblings who have written of their lives with him, those who worked with him and not Nick Tosches.

Tosches comes as close as anyone is likely too however. His try, though it has it's flaws is a noble effort. Tosches accurately portrays Martins rise throught the mob owned and influenced night life of the 40's and 50's. Some readers have misunderstood Tosches stream of consciousness writing style as unfairly portraying Dean as a somewhat foulmouthed uncaring persona. This is a mistake. What Tosches portrays is a man of the period. A time of postwar revelry, mob influence and a need to be street smart. Dean mastered it all. He was tough but not uncaring. The uncaring attitude was the armour he used to protect himself from the mob bosses and those who would manipulate him. He not only refused to kowtow to them, he won them over with his toughness and yes, his integrity. They complained as did his supposedly best buddy Frank Sinatra, that they couldn't control him, he did as he pleased.

It did cost him. He was unable to communicate well his true feelings and held it all inside. He suffered ulcers, headaches and when his son Dean Paul died piloting a National Guard jet in 1986, it all came home to roost. He was devasted beyond comprehension.

He had been on a comeback of sorts during the early 80's. Kicking his dependence on prescription drugs, making peace with Jeanne and successful performances in London and Paris with more frequent TV appearances had him on an upswing by 1985. It came to a peremptory halt with his sons passing.

He went through the motions for 5 more years but it was only because those concerned about him, Mort Viner his manager and confidant, Sinatra and family members pushed him. He finally said enough in 1991 and retired gracefully. His health deteriorating, he lived quietly alone with visits from Jeanne and the family and weeknight forays to his favorite 2 or 3 reataurants. He appeared content. Jeanne said he was, "...always content in a void, he's content right now...".

Of all the "Rat Pack" stars, the TV stars of the 60's and 70's, he remains the most interesting, in demand and emulated. He alone seems to reach new adults who were toddlers when he left the stage. His records still sell and his TV variety performances are selling well on CD. He is doing in memorium what he always did in life; wearing well and and doing it his own way.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars nothing new January 16, 2001

By C. Jordan

Format:Paperback

Since I am a super hard core Dino fan, (since I was 8 1949), and have just about read everything there is on Dino, including every gossip magazine, and had 3 personal encounters with the man, I was very disappointed in this book. There was nothing in the book that hadn't been documented earlier, and the language Dino supposedly used and thought was unnecessary and annoying.

I am convinced no one will ever be able to give clear insight into the man's life since he and his family carefully hid any deep personal information. Dean himself underplayed his entire life and what he really did not "give a damn" about is what anyone thought. I wish the best of luck to those who wish to produce a film about this man. About the only good thing we might get is a great soundtrack!!

As for Mr. Tosches book, there were some great photos!!